The haunting image of Shiri Bibas clutching her sons on October 7 was once again splashed across the front pages of Israeli newspapers Wednesday, as a collective sense of anguish set in after Hamas said it would return their bodies.

Footage of their abduction, filmed and broadcast by Hamas militants during their unprecedented 2023 attack on Israel, showed the 34-year-old mother and her sons Ariel, then four, and Kfir, just nine months old, being seized from their home near the Gaza border.

The images, and those of Kfir and Ariel in particular, quickly became national symbols of the hostage ordeal, encapsulating the terror and despair that gripped the nation.

On Tuesday, Hamas declared it would hand over the bodies of four hostages, including the three Bibas family members, as part of the ongoing first phase of a ceasefire deal in........

© Al Monitor